Guy Reinaud

We lost a great member of the biochar community, Guy Reinaud (1940-2023); a tireless supporter of the International Biochar Initiative, and a dear friend. Guy joined the board of IBI in 2010 and brought a global industry as well as a sustainability perspective. Throughout his long career in the software and chemical industry, Guy focused on sustainability and attended the first global UN conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Earth Summit. Since that year, he served as president of Pro-Natura International, originally founded in Brazil in 1985, which he helped become an international NGO, to focus on rural development, biodiversity protection, and climate change prevention in the Developing World. At the time, Pro-Natura International was among the first ones to deploy commercial-scale pyrolysis to produce biochar for soil application in Senegal,- a technology originally designed to produce green charcoal briquettes from invasive plant species that grow along the Senegal River. Guy introduced IBI to a global network of sustainability experts in industry with deep commitments to making the world a better place. We will miss his humor, his up-beat presence in the room, and his positive outlook.